The Department of State announces the opening of the registration period for the DV-2018 Diversity Visa lottery. The Department grants 50,000 immigrant visas through this program each year to foreign citizens who have applied and qualified.
Online registration for DV-2018 begins at 6 p.m., Central European Time (CET), on Tuesday, October 4, 2016; and ends at 6 p.m. (CET) on Monday, November 7, 2016. All entries must be submitted electronically during the registration period by accessing the Electronic DV Entry Form at www.dvlottery.state.gov. Paper entries and entries received after the deadline will not be accepted. Each applicant may submit only one entry, otherwise they will be disqualified. Entrants should keep their registration number until the end of the entire program.
Registration is free of charge.
Applicants can check to see whether they were selected only at the website www.dvlottery.state.gov. No informational email will be distributed. The information will be available as of May 2, 2017 under the link Entrant Status Check. If you receive a notice by e-mail or regular mail telling you that you have been selected, it is a fake!
Protect yourself against fraud
In the past, there were many websites simulating official U.S. government pages and many fraudulent emails that purported to be announcements about the DV lottery, usually requesting money. These emails are not from the U.S. government. We also remind everyone that Diversity Visa applicants do not pay any fees until they appear at their interview at the U.S. Embassy.
The only trustworthy sources of information on U.S. visas and immigration to the U.S. are the website of the U.S. Embassy in the Czech Republic, the Department of State, the U.S. visa website, and websites of U.S. government agencies (ending with .gov). Instructions for the 2018 DV lottery are also available at www.usvisas.state.gov/dv/instructions or in this video:
